History of The Peloponnesian War - Book VII   

Athenian heavy infantry from the muster-roll, and as many of the
islanders as could be raised in the different quarters, drawing upon
the other subject allies for whatever they could supply that would
be of use for the war. Demosthenes was instructed first to sail
round with Charicles and to operate with him upon the coasts of
Laconia, and accordingly sailed to Aegina and there waited for the
remainder of his armament, and for Charicles to fetch the Argive
troops.
In Sicily, about the same time in this spring, Gylippus came to
Syracuse with as many troops as he could bring from the cities which
he had persuaded to join. Calling the Syracusans together, he told
them that they must man as many ships as possible, and try their
hand at a sea-fight, by which he hoped to achieve an advantage in
the war not unworthy of the risk. With him Hermocrates actively joined
in trying to encourage his countrymen to attack the Athenians at
sea, saying that the latter had not inherited their naval prowess
nor would they retain it for ever; they had been landsmen even to a
greater degree than the Syracusans, and had only become a maritime
power when obliged by the Mede. Besides, to daring spirits like the
Athenians, a daring adversary would seem the most formidable; and
the Athenian plan of paralysing by the boldness of their attack a
neighbour often not their inferior in strength could now be used
against them with as good effect by the Syracusans. He was convinced
also that the unlooked-for spectacle of Syracusans daring to face
the Athenian navy would cause a terror to the enemy, the advantages of
which would far outweigh any loss that Athenian science might
inflict upon their inexperience. He accordingly urged them to throw
aside their fears and to try their fortune at sea; and the Syracusans,
under the influence of Gylippus and Hermocrates, and perhaps some
others, made up their minds for the sea-fight and began to man their
vessels.
When the fleet was ready, Gylippus led out the whole army by
night; his plan being to assault in person the forts on Plemmyrium
by land, while thirty-five Syracusan galleys sailed according to
appointment against the enemy from the great harbour, and the
forty-five remaining came round from the lesser harbour, where they
had their arsenal, in order to effect a junction with those inside and
simultaneously to attack Plemmyrium, and thus to distract the
Athenians by assaulting them on two sides at once. The Athenians
quickly manned sixty ships, and with twenty-five of these engaged
the thirty-five of the Syracusans in the great harbour, sending the
rest to meet those sailing round from the arsenal; and an action now
ensued directly in front of the mouth of the great harbour, maintained
with equal tenacity on both sides; the one wishing to force the
passage, the other to prevent them.
In the meantime, while the Athenians in Plemmyrium were down at
the sea, attending to the engagement, Gylippus made a sudden attack on
the forts in the early morning and took the largest first, and
afterwards the two smaller, whose garrisons did not wait for him,
seeing the largest so easily taken. At the fall of the first fort, the
men from it who succeeded in taking refuge in their boats and
merchantmen, found great difficulty in reaching the camp, as the
Syracusans were having the best of it in the engagement in the great
harbour, and sent a fast-sailing galley to pursue them. But when the
two others fell, the Syracusans were now being defeated; and the
fugitives from these sailed alongshore with more ease. The Syracusan
ships fighting off the mouth of the harbour forced their way through
the Athenian vessels and sailing in without any order fell foul of one
another, and transferred the victory to the Athenians; who not only
routed the squadron in question, but also that by which they were at
first being defeated in the harbour, sinking eleven of the Syracusan
vessels and killing most of the men, except the crews of three ships
whom they made prisoners. Their own loss was confined to three
vessels; and after hauling ashore the Syracusan wrecks and setting